Kinda's Large Tank Adventure (LTA)

[Kindanewtothis]

There is life in these bottles that bottles I added last night

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/2WR28VpTLr4?feature=share

 

 

 

[seabass]

Good, I'm glad you got that in your tank.

[Kindanewtothis]

On 7/16/2021 at 11:02 AM, Kindanewtothis said:

They say 1 bottle is for 30 gallons.

 

I'm thinking 1 bottle in the 10g and keeping one for later.

 

And 1 bottle a week for 4 weeks in the 50g

That was the orginal plan guess nobody realized it when I first said it. I understand now that I need to re-seed the tank but with "fresh" pods each time. 

 

Edit: Can I overseed? I've added 48oz plus the four bottles. That seems like a lot of pods.

[seabass]

26 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Can I overseed? I've added 48oz plus the four bottles. That seems like a lot of pods.

No.  Their population will naturally level out to match the available food supply.  Plus, predators (like fish and coral) will factor into the mix.  The only negative would be the expense.

[Kindanewtothis]

The tank looks terrible, gonna have to clean it all up again. Also I think there are dinos on my cleaner shrimp antennas

 

In the 10g things are not going better but I cannot say it's dinos yet. Shake test doesn't show dinos. Maybe it's because there is not a lot.

[Kindanewtothis]

Did a clean up, vaccumed and filtered the water 3 times again. Maybe that wasn't a good idea with the pods. I don't know if the pods went through the floss. Did not vaccumed on the rocks.

[rough eye]

On 7/16/2021 at 8:23 PM, Kindanewtothis said:

Not sure I understand. You think I'm gonna do something anyway?

yup. pretty sure 🙂

[Kindanewtothis]

On 7/16/2021 at 11:02 AM, Kindanewtothis said:

Also, phosphate is still going up in the 50g, it's now 0.14. Could it be the phyto? Brightwell Neophos will arrive today, I don't think I need it.

So it was 0.14 on the 16th, but way lower the days before.

 

It's now 0.11, do I use Neophos or not? 

[Kindanewtothis]

On 7/15/2021 at 11:42 AM, Kindanewtothis said:

Phosphate 0.08 in the 50g (was 0.04 yesterday and it could be the tester)

For reference for the previous post

[seabass]

38 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

It's now 0.11, do I use Neophos or not? 

What's your target for phosphate?  Earlier I believe it was 0.15ppm.  If so, then I'd dose it back up to 0.15ppm.

[Kindanewtothis]

6 minutes ago, seabass said:

What's your target for phosphate?  Earlier I believe it was 0.15ppm.  If so, then I'd dose it back up to 0.15ppm.

Yeah we've talk about 0.15. If I remember correctly the hanna checker has a 0.04 error margin. Will start dosing.

[Kindanewtothis]

Nitrates are stable at 20.6

[seabass]

4 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

If I remember correctly the hanna checker has a 0.04 error margin.

Yeah, ±0.04 ppm, so based on that, it could be as low as 0.07ppm.  I consider the results a ballpark at best.  However, for your own sanity, I'd pretty much disregard the margin of error and just use the Checker's results.

[Kindanewtothis]

I know it's hard to read but can you help me with this. Is it really 1 ml per gallon to raise phosphate by about 0.25?

[seabass]

Based on the label: 50 * 0.01 * 3.785 = 1.9

 

Therefore, 1.9ml of NeoPhos will raise phosphate by 0.01 ppm in your 50 gallon tank.  So (1.9ml * 4), which is 7.6ml, will raise your tank's phosphate level from 0.11 to 0.15ppm.

[Kindanewtothis]

Could it be just brown algae? (In the 10g)

[seabass]

Could be diatoms.

[Kindanewtothis]

26 minutes ago, seabass said:

Could be diatoms.

How would I know? There's nothing on the rocks.

[seabass]

You could potentially confirm it with a microscope.  But if it isn't dinos, there isn't too much to worry about.

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, Kindanewtothis said:

How would I know? There's nothing on the rocks.

You can check anything under the microscope. It comes in handy for more than just dino's. 

 

It looks like diatoms which is normal in a new tank.

[seabass]

@Kindanewtothis, if diatoms, not only shouldn't you worry about them, but they might be helping to keep dinos at bay.  FYI, diatoms are included in my quest for green algae (a.k.a. good competition).

 

When saltwater tanks first become popular, people favored a clean, white (bleached/dead) appearance to everything (as corals were hard to keep alive).  We should fight the urge to go down that bleached, sterile looking road (which, BTW, wasn't very successful).

 

In dino threads, you commonly hear things like try to keep your tank dirty.  Which is their way of encouraging competition.  Although, I feel that excess detritus, and other things which need broken down, should not be included.  I consider good "dirty" water to be full of inorganic nutrients.

 

I realize that there is a look which most of want; and dirty and full of algae isn't that look.  Plus there are some invasive species of algae which can ruin anyone's day (not that much differently than dinos can), and should actively be fought.  But in the end, we are striving for a balance, where competition helps keep unwanted invaders in check.

Eventually, this balancing act gets easier, and we have to actively intervene less and less.  But just look at all that you have learned from this experience.

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

@Kindanewtothis, if diatoms, not only shouldn't you worry about them, but they might be helping to keep dinos at bay.  FYI, diatoms are included in my quest for green algae (a.k.a. good competition).

 

When saltwater tanks first become popular, people favored a clean, white (bleached/dead) appearance to everything (as corals were hard to keep alive).  We should fight the urge to go down that bleached, sterile looking road (which, BTW, wasn't very successful).

 

In dino threads, you commonly hear things like try to keep your tank dirty.  Which is their way of encouraging competition.  Although, I feel that excess detritus, and other things which need broken down, should not be included.  I consider good "dirty" water to be full of inorganic nutrients.

 

I realize that there is a look which most of want; and dirty and full of algae isn't that look.  Plus there are some invasive species of algae which can ruin anyone's day (not that much differently than dinos can), and should actively be fought.  But in the end, we are striving for a balance, where competition helps keep unwanted invaders in check.

Eventually, this balancing act gets easier, and we have to actively intervene less and less.  But just look at all that you have learned from this experience.

I think the term "dirty water" needs to be changed to something like "nutrient water" because you don't want dirty water full of detritus but rather water with nutrients.

 

I think the term can get some confused, especially when starting out. 

[Kindanewtothis]

6 hours ago, seabass said:

@Kindanewtothis, if diatoms, not only shouldn't you worry about them, but they might be helping to keep dinos at bay.  FYI, diatoms are included in my quest for green algae (a.k.a. good competition).

 

When saltwater tanks first become popular, people favored a clean, white (bleached/dead) appearance to everything (as corals were hard to keep alive).  We should fight the urge to go down that bleached, sterile looking road (which, BTW, wasn't very successful).

 

In dino threads, you commonly hear things like try to keep your tank dirty.  Which is their way of encouraging competition.  Although, I feel that excess detritus, and other things which need broken down, should not be included.  I consider good "dirty" water to be full of inorganic nutrients.

 

I realize that there is a look which most of want; and dirty and full of algae isn't that look.  Plus there are some invasive species of algae which can ruin anyone's day (not that much differently than dinos can), and should actively be fought.  But in the end, we are striving for a balance, where competition helps keep unwanted invaders in check.

Eventually, this balancing act gets easier, and we have to actively intervene less and less.  But just look at all that you have learned from this experience.

There is a lot of "green" on the rocks now. I'm gonna try to run the lights higher (whites and blues full on) to see if more develop. Might also affect diatoms if it is what it is.

[seabass]

That's a clear, natural light picture of the 10 gallon.  Can you get something similar of your 50 gallon?  It'd be nice to see what's going on in there.

[Kindanewtothis]

3 minutes ago, seabass said:

That's a clear, natural light picture of the 10 gallon.  Can you get something similar of your 50 gallon?  It'd be nice to see what's going on in there.

That's with only the whites on the 50g